Hey, I’m Will, more commonly known as TwistdRabbit on the various online places I spend my time on, feel free to look me up and add me 😊
At 40 years old, I’m probably the oldest member of the current KO team, but don’t let that fool you, I’m more than likely the most immature member too. I grew up in the early days of gaming with my first console being the Atari 2600 Jr. Destroying my thumbs on games like Mario Bros, Pacman and Crystal Castles.
I have, over the years, owned almost every major console released with the exception of the NES, Jaguar and Saturn, I was a Sega kid in the early days and the PS1 just dominated so much that it was my only choice. I did, however, pick up a NES a few years ago, complete with the light gun just to play Duck Hunt on the old CRT TV I’ve been dragging about for close to 30 years.
I am relatively new to the development side of the games industry, currently still a student at university studying computer games development. I have, however, been in and around the industry for over a decade.
I, along with a few friends founded a small gaming news and review website and podcast back in the distant past of the 7th console generation, focussing on Xbox 360 content, we called it Xbox Ramble, where we gained a decent following. After a while I took sole ownership of the project as the others had moved on to new projects and decided to expand into PlayStation, handheld, pc gaming and various tech too and built a team of writers, editors, podcast hosts, community managers, forum mods and PR who worked tirelessly to help me build the brand.
I initially planned to create a sub site for each field, PlayStation Ramble, Tech Ramble etc., however the logistics and upkeep of all these various sites proved to be a monumental task and something I couldn’t ask from a group of volunteers who’s only return for their work was to keep the various review items we would receive from publishers and press access to events, so I made the decision to merge them into one large site covering all aspects of gaming and thus Ramble Media was born.
With over 1.5 million unique visits over the space of only a few years, Ramble Media closed its doors in early 2014, personal issues meant I had a lot less time to manage the site and so I offered ownership to some of the senior team members, one person initially stepped in but the task of managing the growing list of jobs I had been doing and adding to over the years with little to no prior experience understandably proved to be more than anyone could handle, it literally was a full time job.
I lost a few people along the way, not because they were a bad fit for the site or through disagreements, but because their hard work and willingness to build on their skills and knowledge led them into paid positions in their respective fields at larger organisations, others started new projects of their own in different fields and have become extremely successful. I am proud that what started as a hobby project was able to give them a stepping-stone to help them realise their potential.
From there I settled into the grown-up 9-5 life, spending time with my family and friends and just playing games for fun, until a recent world changing event meant that, due to the industry I was currently working in, I was made unemployed and having to spend the next half a year in my house.
It was during the summer of 2020 that I jokingly made the comment to my wife “I should just go to college and learn how to make games”, to my surprise her reply was “Well, why don’t you?”. This single interaction was all that I needed to begin seriously considering returning to the industry. I had my doubts, foremost was my age, I was in my late 30's and potentially attending a college filled with fresh faced teenagers, how would I fare with all these kids?
Secondly, I was diagnosed later in life with ADHD, something that I now recognise as the main reason my primary and secondary education was such a disaster, ADHD wasn’t as widely understood or recognised in the late 80's and early 90's when I attended school and as such, even though my grades were consistently above average, I was mostly written off by teachers as “the troublemaker”, “badly behaved ”, “class clown” due to the fact that I couldn’t sit still, be quiet and behave like everyone else. Turns out they just weren’t challenging me enough.
Due to my diagnosis, I started a course of medication which has been a complete game-changer (pun intended) for me, I have more focus that I ever have, I am able to concentrate on tasks even if they are boring (you have no idea how often this happens) and it meant that going back to college to face the dreaded “formal education” that had been such a low point in my younger years was far less of a challenge.
I applied to West College Scotland for their NC Computer Games Development course, fully expecting not to be accepted due to my age and the fact that all my high school qualifications were so old that they wouldn’t match up to current levels. Soon after I submitted the application, I received a phone call from the department head at the college, something he informed me that they don’t usually do. Again I assumed I was being called to be told I hadn’t been accepted but to my surprise I was offered a place in the more advanced HNC class instead.
As it turns out, even though I had no experience in coding using the languages typically used in game development I already had a basic knowledge of coding due to my years working with HTML and PHP while running the ramble sites, having near 2 decades of self-taught graphic design experience using industry standard packages such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Further years of experience from working freelance for QA companies representing some of the largest studios in the world along with my PR and press experience gave me an insight into the basics of the development process from multiple angles.
I was slightly apprehensive about this offer, mostly due to my own lack of confidence, I knew I had experience in all these things, but were my skills really anything to brag about? After discussing it a little more I accepted the offer with one caveat, that if I felt I was out of my depth in the first couple of months, I would be allowed to drop down to the NC course.
Thankfully, and in major part to the amazing lecturers at WCS, I never felt the need to consider dropping down to the NC class, and given that the entire HNC course was presented remotely due to Covid, I spent my first year learning to be a game developer in my loft, learning via Teams.
I’d like to think that what would normally have been a typical standard college year was made all the more difficult due to the circumstances and still I managed to complete it.
I passed the HNC year with an A, giving me skills in graphics, character creation, project planning, C+ coding, level design using Unreal Engine 4, game development using Unity, creating and pitching a game treatment, 2D animation and even entered a game jam with fellow students after only 6 weeks education under our belts.
I moved onto HND at WCS and this time we were on campus, I got to meet the students I had only seen profile pictures of for a year and finally put real faces to names and voices and most importantly, build relationships which have developed into lasting friendships.
My HND year went smoothly, I again passed with an A and built on my skills with more Unity development, more advanced C+ coding, creative writing, 3D modelling and animation, game scripting, team working and video/audio creation with editing.
My time at college was then coming to a close and I had to consider where I wanted to go next, I knew I wanted to continue with my education and Scotland had some amazing institutions to further my dream. I applied to a few including Abertay, Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of the West of Scotland and received offers from all of them.
From there I had to make an extremely adult decision (not like me at all), Abertay is widely known to have one of the best game development courses in the UK and I would have loved to attend there but, given that I’m married with my wife and me being registered as foster carers, moving to the other side of the country for 10 months was out of the question. The time and cost of commuting from the west coast was just too much so I had to narrow my choices down to somewhere closer to home.
After comparing the curriculum of the courses in my area I ultimately chose to attend UWS as their course content felt like it encompassed more aspects of the development process and focused on more of the indie side of the industry. Up front it would allow me to work either solo or in small teams and get the opportunity to wear multiple hats as opposed to teaching you a specific set of skills for a small specialisation range whilst ignoring the other side. Whether it be art, design or coding.
I still hadn’t decided on a specialisation since I had decent skills in most areas of development so UWS offering a wide range of modules covering different disciplines meant I could take more time to decide on the path I wanted to take while still developing my skills in multiple areas.
It was at this time that I was approached by Kando, the CEO of KO, and offered an internship at the newly forming studio, primarily as a programmer, where I would be tasked with shadowing the senior engineer to learn as much as I could. Given that I was still a student working on small projects I had produced through college, game jams and in my free time; I was largely untested. For me to be offered a position that so many others would give an arm and a leg to have, I jumped at the chance.
I have had the opportunity to work on some amazing projects at KO and during my last year at Uni I have finally decided on Environment Art as my specialisation; giving me the chance to not only work on fun and immersive games but to have a large part in how they look and feel to players all over the world who enjoy them.
Whilst writing this I am set to return to Uni for my 4th and final honours year where I will be tasked with writing a dissertation encompassing everything I’ve learned, not only since 2020, but all the skills and experiences gaming has provided me with since the glory days of 1986 when I turned on that Atari for the very first time.